Bernard's work encompasses a very wide range of activities: at the keyboard as orchestral player, continuist, repetiteur, accompanist; and also, increasingly, conducting and choral direction.

He has played principal keyboard (piano/celesta/organ...) in every London symphony orchestra, as well as in almost every other British one.

His continuo work has taken in most of the English period-instrument ensembles, as well as the BBC Singers, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre (for the first-ever production there of a Handel opera).

A member of music staff at Glyndebourne since 1998, he has also worked extensively at Opera North, Scottish Opera, and at leading foreign houses, including Bayrische Staatsoper, De Nederlandse Oper, Teatro Real Madrid, and Theater an der Wien, coaching many of the world's leading singers.

He has played for numerous ballet shows at Sadler's Wells and on tour, especially for Matthew Bourne, as well as for American Dance Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and Carlos Acosta.

In the field of musicals, he has played in "Martin Guerre" (West Yorkshire Playhouse and UK tour), and "The King and I" at the London Palladium. Film and TV credits include "Cold War", "Sweeney Todd" and "The Duchess".

He has been assistant conductor at Glyndebourne, Opera North, London Handel Festival, and for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival. His special interest in choral direction has resulted in work with Brighton Festival Chorus, Leeds Festival Chorus, and Belfast Philharmonic Choir, and (in opera) the Arnold Schoenberg choir of Vienna, English Voices, and the Glyndebourne chorus.